Beautiful Dreamer
by She Who Loves Books
Summary: To some it would like providence. To Hermione and Draco, it would look like hell.
1. Chapter 1

Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter One:

If you had asked it, the portrait of Caracatus Birch would have told you that today was a boring day, like any other, that nothing interesting whatsoever had happened. Caracatus Birch would have been wrong.

For in the early hours of the morning, when he was asleep, something did happen. Something that would affect the lives of two of Hogwarts most important students, something that could change their lives forever.

Had Caracatus been awake for just a minute at the exact time of 3:32 am, he would have seen a most peculiar sight. A short, slim girl with a wild bush of brown hair running down the corridor from the left. He would have seen that she was being chased by several different teachers brandishing books and red pens at her as though they were pitchforks.

From the right he would have seen an incredibly thin boy with platinum blond hair and slate grey eyes running from a group of at least 23 screaming girls. They were all short, blond and busty. They were screaming and reaching for the boy, for whom, despite his obviously toned physique, could just barely keep ahead of them.

The two met in the middle and instantly went down. In the time it took time to disentangle themselves from one another, their respective mobs were almost upon them. In unison they screamed at each other to, "MOVE!" They locked eyes.

The instant they did a small door appeared in the wall opposite of Caracatus's portrait.

They quickly ran through it and disappeared. Had Caracatus been watching he would have seen the mobs banging on the door until it rapidly began to shrink. The moment it had disappeared so did the mobs, they all disappeared.

It all happened in less than a minute, and had Caracatus seen, he could have done something, but he did not. He simply snored and turned over in his frame.

* * *

Hermione ran for the door as fast as she could. Apparently not fast enough because Malfoy shoved her and she tumbled spectacularly before landing on the stone floor in a heap. Malfoy tripped over her sprawled legs and landed on top of her. _Well that didn't hurt nearly as much as I would have expected_, some weird unconnected part of Hermiones mind thought.

Malfoy quickly pushed himself off of her. He didn't even offer a hand to help her up. _Some manners you have, _again interjected that weird part of her Hermione, the part that wasn't paying any attention or didn't care what was happening around her. She picked herself up and tried to collect her thoughts, but there was so many things happening she didn't quite succeed. She then noticed the banging on the door they had come through and quickly brought her full attention to that. Yet even as she looked at it, it began to shrink, leaving an innocent looking bit of wall. _You'd never had known it was there at all, _she mused, strangely unworried.

The sounds of screaming girls and banging books had disappeared with the door, leaving only blissful silence in its wake. _Well_, conceded Hermione, _almost silent._ She was still wheezing from her flight from the teachers.

"Why were those girls chasing you?" asked Hermione, her voice raspy.

He seemed to be thinking of something and only shrugged as means of response.

"I don't know why those teachers were after me," she volunteered, breathlessly. He shrugged.

"How are you not out of breath?" she asked, finally get her own back. Again he shrugged, "Quidditch," was all he offered as way of response. Hermione didn't think that counted as an answer.

Hermione was going to try one last time. "Well, where do you think we are?"

This got his attention, at least. "I don't know," he said honestly. "I don't know, I've never been to this part of the castle before."

Hermione paled slightly. _Uh oh. _"Um, I don't think were in the castle anymore."

"Why the bloody hell not?" demanded Malfoy, finally looking at her.

She pointed word wordlessly behind him.

He could clearly see, in a window that most definitely not been there before, a huge looming grey castle in the distance. A castle that could only have been Hogwarts.

* * *

"Were not in Kansas anymore." At least, that's what he thought he heard the the mudblood say. As to what it could have meant he had no idea.

Before she had shown him the window, he had been contemplating how extraordinarily similar this experience had been as to being in someone's mind. But differences too, some that he could not pinpoint exactly.

He heard the mudblood talking again and tuned back in. she was asking him another question. That's all she did, was ask questions. She never seemed to want an answer either. _So why ask them, _he wondered.

"So, what do you think we should do?" she was asking. _We?_ Draco couldn't help but think snidely. What he said out loud was, "I guess the only thing that can be done. We follow the corridor."

With that they both turned around and looked at it.


	2. Chapter 2

Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter Two:

_She looks scared_, he thought smugly as they were walking along. He enjoyed the thought probably more than he should have. They had been walking for at least 15 minutes, and although the stretch of corridor in front of them looked no different, the dead end from which they had come was no longer in sight. The two directions looked exactly the same and if Draco had suddenly decided to randomly spin in place until he was dizzy he would have no idea from which direction he had come and which way he was going.

_At least its quiet, _thought Draco, _she must be too scared to ask questions. Or maybe, she _is _scared of me._ Yeah, he was definitely happier about that than any sane person should have been. _Of course, my family isn't exactly known for its sanity, is it?_ He thought sarcastically. A_t least if we come across something anything . . . unsavory, I'll have a wand partner who can fight. Not some baby who will faint or cry. _Even though she was a mudblood, Draco did see that she was very smart and quick to master spells. And she hangs around with Potter god's sake. You can't _not _be ready when you spend time with the walking target.

However, it didn't look like they would be coming across anything. It was completely deserted except for the two of them and if something was waiting for them, they would see it a long way off. _Or hear it, I bet there's a huge echo factor in here. _Draco was suddenly tempted to shout out, just to test it. However he wasn't going to do that with a girl here, even if it was a mudblood like Granger.

These corridors were exactly like the ones in Hogwarts, same grey color, about the same size bricks too only there weren't any torches lining the wall every few feet, or snarky paintings glaring at you, or windows. And then, Draco Malfoy had reduced himself to a idiot, _No windows? No torches? How could I have missed that! _He could see just fine despite there being no light source? Corridors with no end?

Damn it he was in someone's mind. _Granger's?_ he mentally shuddered_. No, not Grangers. And definitely not mind. _All those years that he was taught Legimen's and Occlumency and he couldn't even tell where they were! He had been given countless "subjects" to use as "tests" to invade someone's mind and none of their mental landscapes had looked like this. Plenty of people had buildings in their mind, where they stored their secrets and dreams, but one never _started out _in one. They were there as defenses. Buildings made of straw, buildings made of sticks, and buildings made of stone. They were only as strong as their owners made them, but it wouldn't make any sense to start in one! _I'm going in circles, _he thought. _How could I already be in the building, and it's not mine and probably not Grangers. So where does that put us?_

And of course just as he thought that, a painting was on the wall, one that he was sure had just appeared, of some unknown wizard snoring. He looked peaceful, _probably—OH!_ Draco had just realized, they were in a dream, which the dream had just told him, but whose dream?

* * *

Malfoy had stopped. She looked at him, but he took no notice of her. She wondered if he had figured out where they were, as he was now looking around wildly of their surroundings. "Malfoy?" she tried. Nothing, she braced herself, "Draco?" she had never called him by his first name before, but she thought he might be going a little insane. He was now shaking and his eyes were roving about wildly. Maybe he was having some sort of seizure. She wasn't sure what to do. Then she had an idea, she smiled quite evilly. She stepped forward, and did something she had wanted to do him for a _long _time.

* * *

"_What the hell!" _he hollered.

She looked at him innocently , "What?"

"_YOU SLAPPED ME!_" He looked positively murderous.

"I thought you were having some sort of fit, and it helped didn't it? You're not dieing anymore." She smirked at him.

"I was _not_ having a fit, I was having an epiphany," he breathed. He suddenly looked smug.

"Really, care to enlighten me?" she looked interested now. Still, she had just _slapped _him. A mudblood had just slapped the prince of the pureblood hierarchy, he wasn't sharing _anything_ with her. Instead he simply smirked and said, "No, I don't think so." Gone was the enlightened Draco, back as the cold, merciless tease with a hatred of mudbloods.

She looked incredulously at him. "Why the bloody not!"

_She probably has never had anyone try to withhold information from her, _he thought, nearly giggling at the look of shocked consternation on her face. She looked like she was actually, almost in pain. He had to say something though, "Would it really kill you to say an actually curse word?" he mocked. He rolled with it, "I mean, what the bloody? Try what the bloody hell, or what the fuck, anything really."

"I do curse!" she said angrily. He mentally sighed, topic averted. He didn't want to share anything with anyone until he was sure he was right. Because Draco Malfoy is never wrong. In public anyways.

"So," she began, "your epiphany?" she prompted.

He didn't answer. "Well?"

Then, he went black.

* * *

She freaked out and jumped backwards. Draco had vanished. _Vanished!_ He had been there, and then he had not. Like in the space of a blink he had shimmered away. Except she didn't blink, and he didn't shimmer. And he didn't disapparate. She knew that, disapparation was accompanied by a loud crack sound, and nausea to those nearby.

_He's gone! Where did he go? Was she going to disappear? Is he dead? Was he real? Where was she? She was alone! What should she do? Where did he go?_ Her mind was a jumble of questions, running in circles along the inside of her head. The most important being W_hat was she going to do now that she was alone?_ She was feeling weak-kneed and sank to the ground against the cold stone wall. It was by no means a comfortable position but she didn't care. Whatever had happened to Draco could easily happen to her, she was terrified. _Except I'm not. I don't feel anything at all, maybe I'm in shock. I've never seen someone die before. Of course, _she chastised herself_, I don't actually know if he died. Maybe he just… disappeared. Without a trace. To god knows where. Where he could have died. __**Stop thinking that!**_ She told herself. _He's not dead!_

She knew that she was going to have to keep going, find her way out of here. She stood up stiffly and began her jerky walk down the corridor. I_f only stupid Draco told me what he was thinking, _she thought angrily.

She stopped, and looked around. There were no distinguishing marks on the walls and she couldn't tell if this was the direction she had come or was going. Now she was angry, but was too depressed to show it. She sat back down and stared blankly at the wall in front of her.

She had just noticed the lack of markings on the walls. No windows or torches, or any light sources, and despite this breakthrough, she was too tired and too depressed, to care.

She curled up on her side, and tried to cry. She was Hermione Granger and she never gave up. But right now she didn't care. She wanted to try.

* * *

He was in a world of colors. Shining iridescent waves of light, all around him. They were beautiful, spellbinding. He didn't even have a body anymore. He just _was._ And that was all he wanted. To spend eternity floating through waves of light and color, surrounded by beautiful shining presences.

And then it was over. Malfoy opened his eyes. And screamed.

Everything was white. Providing stark contrast with the pleasant darkness behind his eyelids, everything he could see was white. All he could see _was_ white. It _hurt_, it hurt his brain, his eyes felt like they had had bleach poured on them. And then a pinch in his arm, and he shut his eyes again.

This time when he opened his eyes he could see. It still hurt but now it wasn't so blindingly white and painful and he could distinguish colors and shapes. And the first shape he saw was, "Madam Pomfrey?" he croaked.

He looked past her and found himself, to his shock, in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was trying to ask him questions but he wouldn't have it, "Er a-er?" he wheezed incomprehensibly. She stopped talking and looked at him strangely, "What dear?" she said clearly. "Ers anger?" he tried again. She looked confused. Now he was starting to get upset, never mind that he was lying in a hospital bed and couldn't lift his arms an inch, he couldn't even _talk_! While he was thinking this she seemed to have been sounding out his words, she finally got it, and looked quite pleased with herself. "Ms. Granger is over there she pointed to what he assumed must be another bed beyond his own, he couldn't turn his head to look. "Now shut it and rest," she said. "You'll need to be strong when the headmaster and Professor Snape get here. You're lucky you're alive, you know," she added conversationally, "Had Severus not been able to adjust his antidote to the Draught of Living Death you would still be just the same. Now lie down, if I know the headmaster, when something this strange happens, he has no shortage of questions. And if _Dumbledore_ has questions… Well then what's the world coming too?" She had been about to say something else, Draco knew it. But he was in no position to make her share so he contented himself with making fun of her obnoxiously bright and perky attitude. _For a woman who hangs around sick people all day she sure is perky though, _he thought, _or maybe it's _because _she hangs around sick people all day._ He still wish he knew what she had tried to withhold from him, if his mind wasn't so inexplicably weak he would have pulled it out of her head himself. _Of course I with held information from Granger, she could be trapped there forever now, _his father may be a murderer, but draco didn't want to _ever_ kill anyone, even if it was a mudblood like Granger. _Take away her voice maybe, then she wouldn't be so bad. He would probably even sort of li—_Blegh! He had caught himself about to think… he wasn't going to think it. _Just stop thinking about her, _he told himself. _Sure it would be nice to stop her talking, not that I could, but maybe give her something else to do with her li—_"Aagh!" he cried out. Madam Pomfrey rushed over and jabbed him on the arm with her wand. As darkness closed in around him, he finished his thought, _something else to do with her lips._

**For the record guys, I barely know where this is going, I wrote it on a whim and didn't really have any sort of plot in mind. Throw some ideas in my review box –wink wink ;)- and I would be happy to take a look at them.**

**And Claudia, I didn't falt out explain why they were being chased at the beginning. Draco was a womanizer and was therefore being chased by his favorite sort of women. Hermione loves knowledge and learning and was being chased by teachers. **

**Thanks for reading everyone! And please do review! I love hearing from you guys!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

When he woke up, he was looking up into a pair of bright blue eyes, half hidden by gold rimmed half-moon spectacles. And next to _those _eyes were a pair of shining obsidian eyes. While the blue ones twinkled affectionately, the black ones held no emotion,_ of course Snape couldn't show emotion, even if I had just died. You'd think he'd care more about his godson_. Draco knew that he really did care but it would be nice to _see_ it every once in a while. He instinctively moved his eyes over to the bed next to his and could see a bush of brown hair peeping out from over the top of the pillow. He was staring at the curling tendrils of hair hanging over the edges of the pillow and didn't realize he was being spoken to until Snape poked him on the shoulder. "Draco!" he said impatiently, "Answer the headmasters question!"

Draco looked at Dumbledore, "Where were you?" he repeated. Draco had no idea how to answer the question. "Erm, we were in a hallway," he said. "Pathetic," said Snape, "Is that all you can remember?"

Dumbledore, however, looked interested, "Who is 'we'?"

"Me and her," he pointed over at the bed beside his.

"Ms. Granger was with you?" he asked. He didn't give anything away in his expression but he was clearly puzzled. "I see, and what were you doing?"

"Walking." Draco was beginning to get frustrated, they were asking him questions that he couldn't answer. He didn't _know_ where they had been, he didn't have any idea what Dumbledore expected them to be doing besides walking and he had absolutely no idea what had happened!

Maybe his emotions were displayed on his face because Dumbledore stopped questioning him and Snape softened his glare a little. Instead Dumbledore said, "You have a visitor, do you feel well enough to see her?"

Draco didn't care who it was, he just wanted some company that wasn't going to try to interrogate him. He nodded his head and said, "Yes."

Dumbledore gestured at someone he couldn't see standing in the doorway. A thin woman with white blond hair that matched Draco's walked in. her Robes were of the highest quality and she carried herself with grace. However the expression on her face and rings around her red eyes suggested she had been crying. "Hello mum," Draco said quietly.

Dumbledore and Snape left and his mother took a seat beside his bed. She reached forward and hugged him, cradling his head against her breast. "I thought you were dead!" she cried as she rocked him back and forth. "Mum, mum geroff!" he said muffled against her robes. "Mum I'm fine," he said when she finally released him. "Where's father?" he asked, o full well what the answer would be.

His mother looked stricken and said, "He… well he was… he didn't see the need… erm, that is to say he didn't want..."

"… to see me," Draco finished. "I know, he didn't think it was important enough. He didn't care," Draco finished bitterly. "That's not what—" he held up a hand to silence her. "You don't need to make excuses for him. I know what matters to him and I'm not it. It doesn't matter," he said. "I don't care if he cares about me or not. All he cares for is the filth he serves," he finished with disgust. His mother sat silent.

"I think I'm feeling kind of tired actually, see you later?" His mother nodded and got up. He wasn't at all tired. _I was wrong, this wasn't any better than being interrogated by Dumbledore,_ he laid his head back down and closed his eyes. He tried to sleep.

* * *

Hermione had longs since run out of tears and now simply lay, unmoving, against the cold stone wall. To anyone around her they would have easily thought her dead, her skin had taken on the grayish pallor of the wall behind her and the rise and fall of her chest was barely distinguishable. Her eyes were closed and were it not for the small puffs air rising from her mouth at regular intervals she could have easily been a corpse. Her analytical mind had shut down, like a person downing's, she had stopped thinking entirely. She had tried to use her wand before and discovered that it simply would not work, not even for the simplest spells like lumos. It was still grasped in her hand, although much looser than it had been before. She wasn't asleep, more like she was in a coma, but she could still wake up. She had entirely lost track of time and knew that it had to have been hours since Draco disappeared. Though there were no windows the hall had grown considerably dimmer and colder, as if to match her steadily declining mood. She couldn't even shiver anymore, even though it wasn't cold in the corridor it was freezing to Hermione.

Time had no meaning anymore, she was dead in all senses but the literal one. Then, behind her closed eyelids, she sensed movement. She tried to open her eyes but they were melded shut with time. she struggled to move but found her limbs were numb and cold, near dead. She felt a cool sensation near her face and was able to open her eyes. Hers met a pair of beautiful green eyes and suddenly she felt free. The depression left her immediately and she stood with ease and took the hand of the handsome man in front of her. He smiled mysteriously and led her down a small door in the side of the hallway. She followed easily, not a thought in her head. They walked through the door and disappeared.


	4. Chapter 35

**Hey guys, i had to do this even though i didnt want to but it was neccesary to the drama of the plot. this is:**

**The Mini Chapter:**

**Chapter 3.5**

Malfoy, now able to stand, sat beside Granger's cot with a feeling of confusion. He looked into her passive face, wondering about how he had never noticed how beautiful she was. And then, realizing what the thoughts going through his head meant, wondered what the hell was machining him feel this way. When he had still been in the dream with Granger he had felt all the same animosity as he had always felt, but now he couldn't stop thinking about how the light sparkled in her eyes, how the many curls of her hair framed her face just right. As he looked at her he knew it was over, he could never be the snotnosed little prince of the purebloods ever again. And strangely enough he wasn't sad.

He reached forward to take her hand and was surprised by how cold it felt, the rise and fall of her chest no longer seemed as evident as before, indeed there appeared to be no air leaving and entering her lungs. He felt his mouth opened and heard an earsplitting screech split the air. He could not connect it to himself. As Madam Pomfrey came running, Draco checked her wrist and neck for a pulse. Nothing. The grayish blue pallor to her skin that he had not noticed before now became clear in his eyes.

As Madam Pomfrey led him away he realized something. Hermione Granger was dead, and even worse, it was killing him.

* * *

Hermione walked through the red carpeted hallway, gently lit by six candle candelabras. On her face was a brilliant smile, even though her eyes were completely glazed. Arms locked with the handsome blond man beside her. Had she been able to, she might have wondered where they were going but she could not and therefore did not. She did not even register that the hallway ahead of them was slowly growing brighter. He led her forward through what felt like the thing glowing shell of a bubble into a world different than she had ever known.

The barriers in her mind holding her thoughts back popped and a jumble of questions burst forward. None of which made enough sense to be listed. As the blond stranger beside her evaporated into the mist she looked around. Her surroundings consisted of a world like snow and diamonds, everything glowed. She reached forward to touch a tree of diamonds and upon her hand making contact with a single crystalline leaf. The leaf flared with clean white light and Hermione felt something soaring through her fingertips, up her arms, and into her brain. Into her mind.

Knowledge.

She smiled. This was going to be fun.

* * *

Several hours later Hermione had successfully touched and absorbed every bit of knowledge available in this place of wonder. With her knew found knowledge and the powers she evaporated out of the place of wonder and floated back to the corporeal world. The one thing she hadn't learned in the place of wonder was its name.

And so she serenely glided back to the world of her loved ones changed in all but name and heart.

Hermione Granger was now a goddess.


End file.
